Behind the Scenes in the Green Hornet's Garage

Dennis McCarthy, car coordinator on The Green Hornet, takes Popular Mechanics into the garage and behind the scenes for the creation of the film's coolest star: A weapons-equipped 1965 Chrysler Imperial Crown. The Green Hornet hits theaters January 14.

Forget Kato—the Green Hornet's coolest sidekick is his car. The masked crime-fighting vigilante used a weapons-laden Chrysler Imperial Crown, nicknamed Black Beauty, in the 1966 television show. But script co-writers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg thought that for the film, due out Jan. 14, they would be forced to use a new car. "None of the versions that companies pitched were as cool as the original," says Rogen, who stars as Britt Reid/Green Hornet. To persuade director Michel Gondry to use a O65 Imperial Crown, car coordinator Dennis McCarthy bought and modified one of the vehicles. Low to the ground, with tinted windows, green headlight covers and hot-rod wheels, it garnered Gondry's seal of approval.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

McCarthy then had to find 28 more O64 to '66 Imperial Crowns for the production's needs. "We had two hero cars that were basically pristine, with a fully functioning interior, and they weren't used by the stunt department," he says. "Then we had cars that had no motor in it for some kind of gag. What really ate the cars up the most, though, was final chase sequence—the car just goes through various degrees of destruction, and we had to have multiple cars for each degree of damage." The hunt took him from San Diego to eastern Canada. Most of the cars were in terrible shape—more rust than steel—so the crew stripped them to the frames and addedn Chevrolet ZZ454 V8 engines, Race Trans Turbo 400 transmissions, Ford differentials and four-wheel disc brakes. Body parts for the 1965 Crown Imperial are no longer manufactured, so McCarthy got the pieces from an unlikely source. "We found a very eccentric 80-year-old guy in Washington who had a whole collection of these imperials," McCarthy says. "And the guy would not part with them. He would not sell us a complete car under any circumstances. He would only sell us parts."

Most Popular

When the cars were complete, it was time for the stunt department to add the weapons: machine guns, missiles and a flamethrower. McCarthy estimates that his team fully rebuilt 15 cars. "Black Beauty is just an Imperial on the outside," he says. "Under the skin, it's a race car." By the end of production, 26 cars were wrecked; only three survived in pristine shape. "We definitely took a big chunk out of the remaining Imperials on the planet," McCarthy says. "If there's a sequel, it's going to be hard to find 25 more cars."